09-26-2018 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES CITY COUNCIL SEPTEMBER 26, 2018 *APPROVE PARTIAL PAYMENT REQUEST #9 —FINAL PAYMENT FOR T.A. SCHIFSKY & SONS FOR 2 017 IMPR 0 VEMENT PROJECTS The foregoing resolution was duly seconded by Fischer. Ayes (5). Nays (0). Resolution declared adopted. COUNCIL The Finance Director stated that at the last Council meeting, the question SALARY was raised as to whether or not the Council can set annual salary increases DISCUSSION for themselves. She reported that the League of Minnesota Cities responded that it is likely that an automatic annual increase would violate Minnesota Statute, Section 415.11. She explained that the elected official's salaries were last increased in 2014, and she has included a small salary increase of $200 per year for the Mayor and $150 per year for the Council Members in the 2019 budget. She stated that the elected official salary increases must be adopted prior to the next municipal election, so an ordinance must be adopted before November 6, 2018. Fischer stated that when he looked at the survey of other cities elected official salaries, it depends on what it compared, either by population or by annual budget. He noted that Little Canada is probably a little low when comparing population, but a little high when comparing the other cities budgets. McGraw agrees and feels they are a little low compared to other cities that are a similar size. Montour stated that the Council puts in a lot of time and work and should be fairly compensated for that, and the salaries have not increased since 2014. He recommends an annual increase of $200 for the Mayor and $150 for the Council. Torkelson clarified that this increase was per year. Keis agreed with Montour and stated he was agreeable to the proposed increase amount. Montour stated that by keeping up with smaller increases, it is easier to absorb in the budget versus a bigger increase later on. There was Council consensus to move forward with an Ordinance increasing Elected Officials salaries as proposed. 2019 PRELIMINARY The City Administrator reported that at the last Council meeting, the BUDGET & SETTING Council stated they would like to reduce the proposed 3.41 percent gross THE PRELIMINARY levy to below 3.00 percent. He noted that reducing the levy to three percent LEVY would be an impact of about $13,000, which should not be too difficult to accomplish. He recommended the Council set the preliminary levy at 3.41 percent and staff will work on reducing that by the time the final budget is adopted in December. Torkelson questioned whether the seal coating budget should be cut and asked the Public Works Director to explain. The Public Works Director stated that he has been re-evaluating the seal coating process, because in recent years the seal coating has been stripping